In fact, were it given to our human eye to see into the consciences of others, we would judge a man much more surely from what he dreams than from what he thinks. There is will in the thought, there is none in the dream. Even in the gigantic and the ideal, the dream, which is completely spontaneous, takes and keeps the form of our mind. Nothing springs more directly and more sincerely from our innermost souls than our unreflected and indefinite aspirations, much more than in ideas, which are structured, studied, and compared, can we find the true character of each man. Our chimeras are most like us. Each of us dreams the unknown and the impossible according to his own nature.

Seltsam ist es. Beherrscht dich ein Gedanke, so findest du ihn überall ausgedrückt,
du r i e c h s t ihn sogar im Winde.

Denken überzeugt Denkende; darum überzeugt Denken selten.

How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?

And as well as I dream, I reason if I want, for that's just another kind of dream.

Thinking is conversation with oneself.

Ein Gott ist der Mensch, wenn er träumt, ein Bettler, wenn er nachdenkt.

Of course, you have to remind yourself that you might be seeing things that were never there. You might be maneuvering your memories to bring them into line with what you’d want them to be. You can’t be sure you’re not just daydreaming.

Thought creates the space between the thinker and his thoughts, and then tells himself, “I am looking at my thoughts.

Was it only by dreaming or writing that I could find out what I thought?

I was trying to daydream but my mind kept wandering.

We only see what we want to see, and hear what we want to hear. We don’t perceive things the way they are. We have the habit of dreaming with no basis in reality. We literally dream things up in our imaginations. Because we don’t understand something, we make an assumption about the meaning, and when the truth comes out, the bubble of our dream pops and we find out it was not what we thought it was at all.

Dreams transform into thoughts
And thoughts result in action.

Denken, das offen, konsequent und auf dem Stand vorwärtsgetriebener Erkenntnis den Objekten sich zuwendet, ist diesen gegenüber frei auch derart, daß es sich nicht vom organisierten Wissen Regeln vorschreiben läßt. Es kehrt den Inbegriff der in ihm akkumulierten Erfahrung den Gegenständen zu, zerreißt das gesel1schaftliche Gespinst, das sie verbirgt, und gewahrt sie neu.